As rooftop solar grows, industry expert warns of rising fire risks

A solar industry engineer is raising concerns about fire risks tied to rooftop solar panels, pointing to a recent Los Angeles warehouse fire that involved a rooftop solar array and burned for days, producing heavy smoke. Lawrence Shaw, an Arizona-based solar installer, has modeled fire trends using U.S. Fire Administration data and projects that California alone could see 122 solar-related fires by 2030, with most of the nation's incidents concentrated in the Southwest.

Shaw's main concern is heat. He argues that panels mounted flush against roofs, without enough of a gap for air to circulate, trap heat that can damage electrical components and raise fire risk. He recommends leaving more than six inches of space between panels and the roof, though he acknowledges this clashes with the look many homeowners and neighborhood codes want, since visible gaps make solar installations less sleek and less discreet.

None of this means solar panels are unusually dangerous. Shaw compares them to electrical transformers, which occasionally fail or catch fire simply because there are so many installed, not because the technology itself is flawed. His worry is that as rooftop solar keeps growing, especially in urban and suburban areas where open land is scarce, familiarity with these systems among homeowners and emergency responders hasn't kept pace. He's pushing for industry-wide safety standards, better fire-incident recordkeeping, and alternatives like ground-mounted solar canopies over driveways, which stay naturally ventilated. For homeowners, the takeaway is less about panic and more about awareness of how their own system is mounted and ventilated if they already have or are considering rooftop solar.